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Most Influencial Magician?

Garrette said:
Okay. Sorry for misreading. I'm not sure I'd agree on who is more influential, though, especially if we restrict it to the OP which is discussing influence on stage presentation. I think Kreskin would likely win out over Maven there, but I'm not really deadset on it.
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Re-reading the OP, as the question is who had the greatest influence on subsequent acts, for mentalism specifically I would probably go with some early/mid-20th century performers, maybe Annemann or Dunninger, rather than Kreskin or Maven.
 
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David Copperfield. The most famous magician still appear on the highest grossing entertainers and is the only magician on the list I believe.

James Randi helped influence the skeptical presenter.

Banachek has influenced many mentalist acts.
 
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Kreskin made wonder what was possible and what was not. I learned a great deal trying to deconstruct his act.

I have seen most of the magicians mentioned in this thread - I haven't seen Maven or Vernon (did see Cardini). Shamefully, I have never seen Randi.
 
How about:
Bobo? Hugard and Braue? Corinda?

Walking into a magic shop, I'd say Elmsley. :)
 
Let me take a point that has been made and expand upon it.

Many of the performers that professionals deem to be most influential are people to which regular folks respond: "Who??"

Some performers speak with reverence about Dai Vernon and Alex Elmsley and Derek Dingle and Ted Annemann ... and most lay people today respond with "Who?? Who's that??" Everybody's heard of Criss Angel and David Copperfield, and quite a few have heard of Penn & Teller and David Blaine. But many of the principal developers of the effects, the major innovators, the most prominent teachers remain in the shadows as far as the general public is concerned.
 
jhunter1163 said:
And Copperfield for bringing magic into the world's living rooms.
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Doug Henning, mentioned above (whether ironically or not, I'm still not sure) did that two years earlier, and his specials got seven Emmy nominations. He did magic on Broadway. He pioneered the standard (and increasingly ignored) "no camera tricks" style. And yeah, he was a funny-looking goofball who got caught up in TM and had a famous run-in with Randi.

That said, Mark Wilson did a magic series when Doug was a teen and David was a toddler. He's the TV pioneer as far as I'm concerned.
 
In defense of Kreskin...

...I met after a performance (in the reception line) when I was about 9 years old and he was unbelievably attentive and supportive that I wanted to be able to do what he did. He entertained i bet close to a thousand people that night and everyone was satisfied with the entertainment value. His entire act can be fit into a small briefcase. It's brilliant in its minimalism.

I went to Lou Tannen's and said I wanted to be a mentalist and they sold me an expensive poorly bound softcover book that completely deconstructed Kreskin's act and all other mentalist acts. I was, "hmm, it's all just woo (magic tricks)" and I was fine with that knowledge. However I was pretty young and I think adults that believe in mentalists are pretty darn naive and I don't blame Kreskin for anything.

That guy was a hoot. He had charisma. You had a fun evening watching his performance. He seemed genuinely caught up in the moment and having fun as well. He was/maybeisstill a true professional. Brilliant at what he did/maybestilldoes.
 
I have no issues with Kreskin as a performer. While I never met him, I remember watching and loving his shows, but my interpretation of the OP leads me to remain insistent that Kreskin is not one of the most influential.

Without wanting to derail, I'll give a musical example. My eldest son and I were recently discussing which rock era bands should be included on the short list of greats. He included Queen; I was reluctant to agree. Don't get me wrong; I think Queen produced some of the greatest rock songs ever, but I hesitate to call them a great band because my definition includes influence. The Beatles influenced rock. The Rolling Stones influenced rock. Prince influenced rock. But I don't see it with Queen. They were fabulous; no one can replicate their sound; their musical prowess is right there at the top; their lyrical ability is astounding. But who cites Queen as an influence?

Oh, well. I'll finish by reiterating that I don't want to derail; since I am by no means a musical scholar I could well be wrong about Queen. I just wanted to explain by means of example why I don't include Kreskin among the most influential and how that exclusion is not a reflection on his ability.
 
Garrette said:
I have no issues with Kreskin as a performer. While I never met him, I remember watching and loving his shows, but my interpretation of the OP leads me to remain insistent that Kreskin is not one of the most influential.
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Of course you are correct. I'm guilty of derailing a Conjurer's Corner thread with substituting "most influential" with "personal influential" (and believing my road to this thread may have not been unique - maybe it was).
Without wanting to derail, I'll give a musical example. My eldest son and I were recently discussing which rock era bands should be included on the short list of greats. He included Queen; I was reluctant to agree. Don't get me wrong; I think Queen produced some of the greatest rock songs ever, but I hesitate to call them a great band because my definition includes influence. The Beatles influenced rock. The Rolling Stones influenced rock. Prince influenced rock. But I don't see it with Queen. They were fabulous; no one can replicate their sound; their musical prowess is right there at the top; their lyrical ability is astounding. But who cites Queen as an influence?

Oh, well. I'll finish by reiterating that I don't want to derail; since I am by no means a musical scholar I could well be wrong about Queen. I just wanted to explain by means of example why I don't include Kreskin among the most influential and how that exclusion is not a reflection on his ability.
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A fine metaphor. I would like to comment that Queen was big when I was in high school and although I never bought any of their albums I enjoyed their hits on the radio and enthusiastically played one of their anthems on my baritone horn in the pep band at football games. I believed Freddy Mercury was somewhat of a Liberace character and was amazed how some of the high school males I knew who I suspected were homophobic loved Queen. I believe if Queen didn't further rock music they furthered acceptance of flamboyant characters (and that's pretty worthwhile). Their name was Queen for heaven's sake (and not for the chess piece).
 
Senex said:
Of course you are correct. I'm guilty of derailing a Conjurer's Corner thread with substituting "most influential" with "personal influential" (and believing my road to this thread may have not been unique - maybe it was).
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For shame. I, for one, have never ever derailed a thread on the JREF. Ever. At all. Not even once. Honest.

You can trust me; I'm a magician.


Senex said:
A fine metaphor. I would like to comment that Queen was big when I was in high school and although I never bought any of their albums I enjoyed their hits on the radio and enthusiastically played one of their anthems on my baritone horn in the pep band at football games. I believed Freddy Mercury was somewhat of a Liberace character and was amazed how some of the high school males I knew who I suspected were homophobic loved Queen. I believe if Queen didn't further rock music they furthered acceptance of flamboyant characters (and that's pretty worthwhile). Their name was Queen for heaven's sake (and not for the chess piece).
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I knew long ago what Queen was about and still loved their music. My wife loved their music, too, but didn't know anything about the band itself. About two years ago we wen to a concert by a local tribute band. After the first few songs my wife leaned over to me and--in reference to the man portraying FM--asked "Was he really that gay?"

And in premature defense, she is not in the slightest homophobic, having both close friends and relatives who are gay. She was just surprised at the flamboyance.

My answer: "Actually, I think the guy is underplaying it a bit."
 
Sadly, I saw Kreskin on the Jimmy Kimmel show Wednesday and he performed the "open a locked safe where his last year's presidential prediction has been stored under guard" effect. It was clumsily performed in a number of ways.

Kreskin physically looked good for someone his age but his timing was bizarrely amateurish. I'm sorry to say he is not as AMAZING as I remembered. You can't judge him today like when he was in his prime.
 
as a fan of Magic (tho not a practitioner) I would say that Houdini has to be the biggest influence on kids that became magicians later on, and on the public at large. He's like the Babe Ruth of magic. You could go to the smallest shack in the middle of Arkansas and the ole bumpkin who wandered out would probably not just know the name Houdini, but would probably have a Houdini story (even if it was just secondhand or via a book)
 
I'll be the first to admit that I don't really follow the "world" of illusionists/magicians/whatever you want to call it (I get annoyed with the whole "Never reveal how it's done"-ethos, as I feel equally fascinated by how it was done as I do by watching the 'raw' performance), but I'd imagine that as far as generating headlines, making it into people's living rooms, and just for sheer scale, someone like David Copperfield must be up there?

I mean, making the Statue of Liberty disappear and walking through the Great Wall of China, that certainly made a major impression on me when I was kid.
 
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